Thanksgiving 2012: Shanghai Style

Thanksgiving is completely foreign to Chinese people, but as a family we are blessed to not only have developed our own unique way of celebrating in Shanghai, but also have many Chinese friends to celebrate it with.  Although most of them have never celebrated Thanksgiving before, enjoying food, friends and giving thanks is clearly universal.  It is also a gift to be able to introduce our friends to the faith heritage of the U.S. and the traditions our family has to give thanks to God for his many blessings.

Below are a few pictorial highlights from this year's celebration that took place earlier tonight (November 24).

The girls pose with the smoked turkey, which we once again picked up at Bubbah's Texas Style BBQ.  What a gift to NOT have to cook a turkey and too have it smoked Texas Style!

 



The boys also got in on the turkey action.  Carving the turkey is one of the few times that Joab puts on an apron each year!  Sorry I don't know how to orient the picture correctly:(

 

 

Miriam was delighted to show off the min-pie she had made as well as the fact that she had marked "M" on the top of the pie for Miriam.

 

 

But Miriam's min-pie was just one of many of the AMAZING baked goods that Emily created.  From left to right we enjoyed a cherry pie, Miriam's min-pie, homemade bread, min-apple pies and (Joab's personal favorite) pumpkin pie.

 

 

Amazing sides included: mash potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing and roasted potatoes.

 

 

The meat section was a East meets West cornucopia; from right to left: braised pork , turkey, rice covered pork ribs and spicy roast duck.

 

 

Before starting the meal we asked the kids to join in our family tradition of putting something they were thankful for on our family "Thankful Tree."

 

 

 

Stocking Fun

Silas is my Grandma Tweedy's 12th great grandchild!! She sent this very cute stocking all the way from Iowa for his first Christmas! I could not resist capturing him inside of it- while he is still so little!

Sleep in heavenly peace little Silas.....

1 Month and Jack O Lanters

As you can see from the picture below, we are all excited that Silas is one month old! 

What a gift to have this little boy in your family. 

Never too late for Jack O Lanters! 

Our kids received pumpkins at a birthday party this weekend and we decided to carve them.  Pumpkins are more commonly used for soups in China than as Fall decorations,

so it was a bit of a challenge to properly carve them.

The kids also thought it was fun to pretend to be pumpkin heads!

It was also really cool to see one of the pumpkins in the dark. 

Joab's Jottings: Technology as a Tool

Since starting to work for a technology company (Cisco Systems) over two years ago my personal interest in how technology is actually used to improve our daily lives has grown.  Therefore, I trust our regular blog readers will indulge me in a few "jottings" on a topic that I see closely connected to my work and (hopefully) to our lives.

Two Examples of Using Technology in the Developing World

Over the past couple weeks I have ran across two very different examples about how technology is successfully applied in the developing world. The more I compared these two examples, the more I am convinced it is the people piece that makes the difference. 


#1 Lap Tops In Peru

The first case is about Peru’s One Child, One Laptop program, which according to this National Public Radio (NPR) story has largely been a failure. This is largely because while children in rural communities have laptops they lack basic infrastructure to support that lap tops (power, internet connectivity, etc).

#2 Cell Phones in India

The second case is automated call center run by OneWorld South Asia centre that allows farmers in rural India to use cell phones or telephone kiosks to access information that will benefit their crop production. As a result of this effort, which is supported by Cisco Systems technology and part of Cisco’s CSR program in India, the center has made information available to over 150K farmers in 1,000 villages and participating farmers are seeing a 20 to 30% increase in productivity.

What Does it Matter?

It strikes me that there are at least two major implications that we can draw from these very different cases:

1) Technology Solutions Must be in Context: Technology is not a solution in and of itself, but simply a tool. It is effective when used in a way that fits appropriately into the context of the economic and social limitations of the end users (IE: cell phones in rural India vs. lap tops in rural Peru).

2) The People Piece: Technology is most likely to be used if the people selling it understand the context of their customers and sell the value of their solution accordingly.  For example, offering audio services to farmers who are largely illiterate rather than asking non-tech savvy teachers to teach their students how to use laptops and not even providing a power source for those lap tops.

So, what is your take?  Where have you seen technology "over-sold" as a silver bullet and where have you experienced it appropriately applied?

ICS Carnival - 4th Anniversary Celebration

Today was memorable as I (Joab) took our three older kids to a special community party- a Carnival to celebrate the 4th anniversary of International Church of Shanghai (ICS). 

It has been a gift for our family to be part of this multi-cultural international church that today has over 600 people in attendance each Sunday that come from nations around the world.  As you can see from the pictures below, the kids had a grand time (and so did I)!   

Miriam enjoys a horse ride

Asa enjoys his first cotten candy

Salome and her good friend Ava enjoy some popcorn

 

 

A Chinese acroebat balances a large pot on his head

The street filled with booths where the kids played games and win prizes 

Halloween in Green Home - Oct 2012

Halloween is not widely celebrated in China, but our family is blessed to be part of a community that live in or near the Green Home apartment complex.  Below are some pictures of our kids from today’s community celebration.

Salome dressed up as Spiderman Princess and on the phone – she always loves to chat!

 

 

Asa and Salome show off their costumes – both decided on a Spiderman theme - and are displaying the treats they collected from the neighborhood party.

A close up on the treats - the hard work of the amazing moms who organized the community party.  I love the lolipops dressed up as ghosts and the apple wedges disguised as lips and teeth.

Though Miriam wasn't able to join the party, she did enjoy the apple wedges.

Day Ten

Silas is doing great! And I am feeling better too! Just needed a lot of sleep- so Joab took the kids this afternoon after church so Silas and I could take a nap. I woke up to find him in this ultra-cute pose. The guy loves to eat and sleep=he is growing!

Wish I could 'beam' you all over to hold him, he truly is a gift!